13

Alright, step one: don't panic. This is the first time since you got here that your comic knowledge is directly useful. Yes, Amazo's potentially one of the most powerful villains in said comics, but the key word there is potentially. He is only as powerful as the superheroes he copies, so without any he would be… well, probably still a respectably strong android given the way he's hurling that countertop like a softball, but still a lot more manageable.

But to keep it that way, the first thing I needed to do was tell everyone about it. I saw Starfire start to shoot forward as I subvocalized over the coms. "Wonder Woman, Starfire, do not engage I repeat do not engage! Break line of sight immediately!"

"Machina, why-"

"The android's name is Amazo, it is capable of copying superpowers on sight! If you fight it, the android will only become stronger! Fall back now!"

Starfire skidded to a stop in midair about 50 feet away from the fight. Amazo started to turn its head toward the Tamaranian, but she quickly flew to the side, disappearing from sight down a side alley. The android wasn't given a lot of time to consider the new arrival before its hand shot up and grabbed an arrow out of the air that had been streaking towards it. Amazo then turned its attention back to the two it had already been fighting and moved towards them.

I was about to pull back myself when I noticed something out of the corner of my eye, a young man in a hoodie standing on the other side of the street from the fight. He was crouched behind a mail box and holding up his phone to record the superpowered brawl. Idiot, I thought to myself as I quickly considered what to do, but there wasn't much choice. I broke cover and sprinted towards the youth, planning on simply grabbing him and pulling him clear of the fighting. So long as I didn't engage the android directly, there was a decent chance it wouldn't pay attention to me so long as I was fast. Besides, first thing above all else: save the civilians.

I soon got close enough that I began to shout, but my words were drowned out by the sudden Canary Cry that Amazo unleased. The android swept the wave of sound as it tried to track Green Arrow and Black Canary… and this sweep caused it to pass by myself and the civilian. There was a parked car between me and the android when the wave hit, so I only felt every particle of my body vibrate for a second before the vehicle lifted off the ground and slammed into me, sending me sprawling.

The wave then hit the young man, launching him off his feet and sending him and the mailbox towards the building behind him. There was a loud crunch as the mail box crushed him against the brickwork, and when he collapsed to the ground his head was stained with blood and bent at an unnatural angle. From my angle I could see his face, and while his eyes were open they...

Wait… that's not… but I was supposed to…

"Machina, where are you? Machina respond."

I blinked, tearing my eyes away from the- I answered Wonder Woman on the com. "I'm near the fight, I saw a civilian and went to get him out of the area but… the civilian's down, ma'am."

There was a pause before she answered. "Come to the roof of the store at the end of the street, we need to regroup."

I muttered an affirmative and half shoved, half slid out from the car on top of me as my body bulked up to combat form. I slipped out of line of sight of the conflict as best I could and hurried down the street. The area was a mixture of commercial and residential, with most building being between 2 to 5 floors tall, and soon I spotted the convenience store Wonder Woman was talking about. It was about 100 feet away and not easy to spot from where Green Arrow and Black Canary were doing battle, but it was still close enough that we could respond if we had to.

As I scaled the wall and pulled myself over the lip of the roof, I saw Wonder Woman and Starfire a short distance away looking in the direction of the fight. Wonder Woman turned towards me. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, yeah, just knocked around a bit." I said as I waved her off. "I'll, I'll be fine."

She gave me an unreadable look at that, but she continued. "This android, Amazo you called it, I assume you know about it due to your meta-knowledge?" I nodded and her expression became focused. "Tell me everything."

I hesitated for a second before I started to talk. "In every iteration I am aware of, Amazo was created by one Professor Ivo, usually to destroy the Justice League. Its primary ability has always been to copy the abilities of anyone it sees." I glanced back in the fight's direction just as I heard Black Canary let loose her own Cry to nullify Amazo's yell. "But exactly how it works changes between each one. The one I'm most familiar with was made entirely out of nanites, and was basically a much more powerful version of myself. Pretty sure we're not fighting that one."

She took a moment to process that before she asked "How do we beat it?"

"I… I'm not sure. I think the way it was traditionally brought down was that it copied a person's weaknesses as well as their strengths, and that was exploited to destroy it. At the moment though since it's only copied Black Canary I don't think it has any weaknesses. But since it probably doesn't have any super-durability either… hit it with missiles?" I suggested.

"Big missiles!" A new voice suddenly popped up on the coms, male and breathing hard. I was worried we had been hacked for a moment before it became clear who it was. "I hit the damn thing with every explosive arrow I had, and it barely flinched. That said, I don't have the really big stuff on me right now."

Wonder Woman frowned. "The League doesn't exactly keep that sort of arsenal, but I see your point." Her hand went to her ear. "Wonder Woman to Batman, the situation in New York is worse than we thought. Machina has identified the assailant as the android Amazo, a machine capable of replicating super-powers. Do you have anything that could be of assistance?"

There were a few seconds before Batman responded. "Possibly. Has its composition been identified?"

I broke in, knowing what the man was trying to get at. "It's not nanite Amazo, sir. Or at least it appears to be a purely mechanical android from the outside. So far it has only copied Black Canary, so I don't think it's any more durable than, say, Red Tornado. Hopefully."

There was a pause before Batman spoke. "Green Arrow, your assessment."

"Not exactly in a position to give a dissertation, Bats." The man snipped back, but after a few seconds he continued. "Think it's a little stronger and tougher than Red Tornado, but not by much. Didn't start singing until about five, ten minutes after Canary started, but it's been getting better at fighting us the whole time. I would have thought he was holding on to his parrot act as a trump, but if Machina says otherwi- shit!"

There was an explosion down the street followed by smoke rising up into the air. There sure are a lot of explosions for a relatively low powered fight, I thought to myself. Are the cars fueled with explodium too? A second later I saw Green Arrow pull himself and Black Canary to a rooftop via grappling hook, trying to get away from whatever was happening down on street level. Their respite didn't last long though, as I soon saw Amazo scale the side of the building in a rather inhuman motion to continue fighting the two heroes.

The rest of us on the convenience store roof ducked down low to keep from being seen, but I was still focused in on the android itself. There was something… unsettling in the way it moved, the way it punched and blocked. Every motion was mechanical, so efficient to be as minimal as possible. Its humanoid frame and copied fighting style forced it to move at least somewhat like a person, but it didn't make any of the other small and fluid motions that a human would. It was like staring into the uncanny valley of biomechanics. There was also something strange about the gaps in its chassis, the dark spaces between the plates seemed… off for some reason.

Not long after, the two heroes made a retreat and jumped off the building and back out of sight, the android following them. The rest of us stood back up and looked at each other expectantly. Starfire was the first to voice our thoughts. "Well, what is our plan?"

Batman spoke up. "I do have some heavy ordinance, but it will take some time to prepare and get it to New York. ETA, 20 minutes."

Green Arrow's voice broke through over the coms "Hate to rush you, but I don't know how much longer we can keep this up. My quiver's running dry and Canary has near blown out her voice trying to counter the robot. We need someone to tag in, or a solution, fast."

My mouth pressed in a thin line. "Do we have any non-powered superheroes available?"

Wonder Woman mirrored my expression. "Batman and Green Arrow are it. Technically Green Lantern as well, but if the android is capable of copying technology…"

She had left it as an open question, and with a sigh I answered "We shouldn't risk it."

There was a moment of silence before Batman said "Machina, do you think that you could engage and neutralize Amazo fast enough that he would not have time to copy your abilities?"

I paused as I quickly went through everything I had observed in my mind, then answered "I can't say for certain until I try. Given how the core of my abilities is shapeshifting and how very… mechanical this version is, it's possible he can't mimic me at all. But if he could, my going in could make him massively more powerful. I don't see much of a middle ground here."

"Regardless, we are low on time and options. If Amazo truly is built to destroy the Justice League, in all likely hood it will turn its attention to the local populous if we do not engage it, in order to draw us out. Machina, do you think you can do it?"

A brief flash of a terrified face moments before it impacted a wall flashed in my mind. "…If I can touch him, yes I can do it. But I'll need some cover, something to keep his attention and eyes off of me."

Wonder Woman nodded. "Green Arrow, Black Canary, keep its attention for a little while longer. You'll be running interference. Any other League members listening, try to identify and find Professor Ivo." She turned to Starfire. "Starfire, you and I will be on crowd control and minimizing civilian interference." The other heroine nodded before Wonder Woman turned her attention back to me. "Here's how this is going to work…"

----------------------​

A few minutes later, I was pressed flat against the side of a building, the fight between man, woman and machine coming my way. The street opened up into a T-section just before a (thankfully empty) small park, so if Amazo happened to turn the corner there would be nothing stopping it from spotting me. Hopefully the other two will have gotten into position before that happened.

Soon enough, I saw Black Canary come into view in a window reflection around the corner. She slid to a stop and spun, letting out a Cry that sounded a bit weaker and more wobbly than before. This time the sound wave that answered back was strong enough that it overpowered her and knocked her to the ground. A second after the sound cut off and I heard a series of impacts, follow by the sound of escaping gas. If things had gone to plan, that was the sound of several smoke grenade arrows hitting Amazo from behind from where Green Arrow had flanked it.

It wasn't a complicated distraction plan, but simple was just fine for me.

Black Canary picked herself up and ran past me, and I heard her say in a hoarse voice "Now!" I bolted from cover and ran, trusting on my blindsight to not trip on the rubble as I plunged into the growing cloud of smoke. I quickly identified the android, and luckily enough he it had turned away from me to face where the last attack had come from. In a matter of seconds I was on him, my hand reaching out to touch his back. At the last second though, its torso spun all the way around and it grabbed my wrist. Close enough! I thought, and an instant later assimilation spikes deployed from my arm.

Whatever the android's metal chassis was made out of was extremely tough and dense, my nanites having trouble getting through directly. It didn't matter though, as the gaps between the plates in its hand left plenty of room to slip inside and-

I screamed as it suddenly felt like I was touching molten metal, the tips of my limb burning away at the touch of the android's internals. It only lasted for a second though, as Amazo quickly spun and hurled me away from him. The crushing impact into the side of a car was almost a relief as the burning pain cut off, though I still felt a little disoriented after what had just happened. It was such that I almost missed Wonder Woman over the coms. "Machina, what happened?! Did you try to assimilate it?"

"I don't… it failed." I managed to say as I got to my feet, trying to parse what little information I had gleamed from my brief look at Amazo's insides. "It's… got some kind of energy field running through its components to power it, extremely powerful, I don't know what it is. It disintegrated my nanites on contact. I can't assimilate it."

Amazo stared at me for a long moment, and as it did I felt something buzz deep in my chest, emanating from the sensor suite I had replicated from the Psion tricorder. The one which still had about 4 different sensors which I still had only a vague idea what they did. It's not just visual, it has some kind of active scan, I thought. Its hand twitched before it became still. "Nanite intrusion detected." It said as it turned fully towards me. "Setting priority target."

Oh shit-

In three bounding leaps Amazo cleared the distance between us and smashed his fist into my chest, imbedding me into the car I had just slammed into. The android began pummeling me with increasing speed, and even as I pushed through the pain a sense of panic started to fill me. I didn't know what to do. If I used my abilities the thing would just copy them and get stronger. But then it might just do that by looking at me, and either way my getting continuously pommeled wasn't helping anyone.

"Machina!"

Starfire's voice came from some distance behind me, but before she could say anything else I yelled back "Stay back! Don't let him see you, I-I'll keep him busy!" Hopefully I sounded a lot more confident than I actually felt. Ideas and devices raced through my mind, but I couldn't risk actually using them. But since my current level clearly wasn't working, I had to step it up somehow. Which meant…

Fuck it. Doing it the old fashioned way.

I stopped trying to block, taking the next blow to my face and grabbing the arm that hit me. I did the same with the other arm that came at me, and after a few seconds struggle I slowly forced its arms apart. Just as it started to shift its feet for better leverage, my discreetly created tail shot out from behind me and speared straight towards the thing's head. The android's reaction speed was fast as it tried to tilt its head to the side, but not fast enough as the bladed tip scraped the edge of its left eye socket. There was a flash of sparks and some exposed circuitry, but otherwise it was fine. Still, the sudden movement caused it to shift off balance, which allowed me to push to my feet just as it tore itself from my grip (with a few bits of metal tearing off with it).

Brutally, I thought as my hands shaped in to claws. It was a risk showing the thing any of my abilities, but I had no real combat training that I could leverage. And since I honestly couldn't see a way for the mechanical man in front of me to mimic my basic shapeshifting, this was my best chance at beating it. I just had to hope that it couldn't infer my other abilities from just this alone.

I came in low, darting to the side before launching myself at Amazo's legs. It side stepped and kicked at me, but I just rolled with the blow and used the momentum to lash out with my tail again. The appendage nailed the android in the side and knocked it off balance, allowing me to step back in and tackle Amazo to the ground. Again I tried to slash at its eyes to blind it, but Amazo managed to wrap his legs around my midriff. There was a twisting motion that I was sure shouldn't be humanly possible and I suddenly found my face smashing into the asphalt. The android the grabbed the back of my head and started repeatedly slamming it into the ground.

Two could play at that bullshit. Long spikes erupted from my back, and I both felt and heard them scrape along Amazo's chassis, pushing it back as I twisted around and broke its grip on my head. The android rolled back and to its feet as it tried to gain some distance, but I didn't let it. I rushed back in and jabbed with my right. Amazo caught it, so I went low with my left. It caught that one too. Which left the android open for my other right.

The extra arm I had hid behind my back slammed into the side of the android's head with devastating force, shattering the already damaged eye socket. Arm number four came around to give the same treatment to the other side of the head, but again it pulled back. I still hadn't really mastered using multiple sets of arms yet, but at that moment I didn't really care. I just pushed forward and swung with wild abandon, hammering any part of it that looked open.

It seemed to work at first, as Amazo was pushed back as I rained blows at its head and body. But the rate of its retreat began to slow as it started blocking more and more of my strikes. By the time we reached the sidewalk the android stood its ground and parried everything I threw at it. I tried to press harder, but I fell into a trap where my arms ended up crossing one another and getting tangled. Amazo simply shoved me back before it's foot lashed out to the side, striking a lamppost with enough force that the base crumpled and broke, and it grabbed the pole with an extended arm.

I saw the swing coming from a mile away, but my sudden panic combined with my extra limbs resulted in me losing all coordination as I tried to do several things at once. What actually ended up happening was that I sort of jumped up into the air to the side of the android and my limbs failed wildly as I tried to get them under control. I felt my leg impact something solid just before the metal pole slammed into me. I think I smacked into the side of a building before I fell roughly back to the ground in a heap of rubble.

I let out a small growl of frustration as I picked myself up, shifting back to a more normal humanoid form. No doing that again, I thought to myself as I glanced back at Amazo, and froze. It looked like my wild kick had managed to further damage the left side of its head, enough that it's 'skull' was misshapen and exposed. There was something odd about the material though, the way it caught the light made it difficult to tell if it was black, grey or silver from moment to moment.

A second later its head started to shift and change shape, moving back into a more human structure. I took a risk and zoomed in with my sight, giving myself as much tunnel vision as I dared in order to get a closer look at just what the fuck was under the hood of this thing. And as I got a clear view the result was… fascinating. It looked to be some sort of mesh of small metallic plates and threads, with noticeable patterns emerging from different materials and components. Up close it looked like pure chaos, but pull out far enough and if formed an interconnected whole. And it was clear that it was capable of rearranging itself and forming new configurations and arrangements, almost like myself. But so much more complicated and intricate on a macroscale…

I snapped myself out of my fascination and refocused on Amazo just as it finished rebuilding its face, the outer plating still missing but its structure restored. For a moment neither one of us moved, both of us analyzing and judging the other, wondering what the next move was.

Then it did something I did not expect: it spoke. "Observational limit reached." The android intoned. "Subject 'Machina' exceeds complete possible replication with current data and analysis."

I blinked in surprise at that before a grin split my face. "Ha! Suck it, tin can!" I yelled. Looked like the machine had no clue how to replicate my nanite body after all.

"Begin Stage 2 analysis: Physical Sample."

Wait, what-

Amazo exploded into motion as it hurled the lamppost like a spear at me, the improvised weapon cutting through the air with blinding speed. I didn't quite manage to dodge completely, and the pole clipped my side, causing me to spin violently. I managed to get control of myself just in time for Amazo to clear the distance and grab onto my skull.

"Access: Black Canary." Amazo said as it gripped both sides of my head. It then shoved its face right next to mine, and I saw its jaw descend to reveal the mechanism in its mouth before it screamed at point blank range.

My head exploded. It hurt.

The removal of my head was disorienting to say the least. On top of the greatest pain I had felt since my getting my nanite body, it also blinded and disoriented me. Everything was just darkness and pain. Then, just as it started to subside, a new pain ignited as I felt its fingers start to dig into my neck stump. Amzao was literally trying to take a piece out of me.

I didn't know if the android would find these samples helpful; my nanites went inert the moment they became separated from my main mass (so no starfish scenarios, thankfully). I didn't want to find out though. I pushed through the pain and focused on the anger and fury that had slowly been building, and even as my head started to reform, my arm shifted into something more complicated than I had been shaping before. The first thing I heard as sound came back to me was the angry whir of a motor followed by the shriek of metal against metal. I felt Amazo's grip break and pull back from me, and as the eyeballs in my resorted head formed I saw the damage I had inflicted. Unlike the scratches that I had already given it, there was now a deeper gouge running diagonally across its abdomen.

The massive chainsaw that my arm had become revved. "Groovy." I all but snarled before I went right back in.

This time the android took care to dodge my attacks rather than block them as I tried to hack the damn thing to pieces. In fact, for the moment Amazo seemed to forgo attacking entirely and instead focused on getting away from me. I dogged its steps as close as I could, my saw biting into its chassis several times as we moved down the street. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the occasional person some distance away. I didn't know how far out the other superheroes were keeping civilians clear, but I knew I had to stop the android from getting too far.

As we passed another intersection, my legs' internals changed, compressing and becoming more spring like. Between one step and the next my gait changed, and in the next instant I exploded forward in quick burst. The android had been unprepared for this and I slammed into it just before it got its arms up to defend itself. My chainsaw bit into its chest as I tried to grind my way through, but Amazo decided that it had enough and simply grabbed onto the saw from the side. Its hand was damaged as saw bits tore across it, but with a crushing grip it squeezed tight and pulverized my weapon. I tried to bring my other arm around to strike, but it beat me to it and a powerful right cross sent me flying through the air.

I was already reforming as I landed and skidded to a stop next to yet another lamppost. Was it always that strong? I thought as I pulled myself to my feet, watching as the android slowly walked towards me. I got sloppy. I must have increased my strength as I fought out of reflex, and now Amazo was mimicking it. I needed to be smarter about this. I glanced at the lamppost next to me and got an idea. I mimicked what the mechanical man had done earlier and kicked at the base of the pole before gripping the middle. Amzao saw this and immediately brought its arms up to block the incoming swing.

Which is why I instead lashed out with my other arm and fired my underarm grapple at the android. The grapple hit it in the torso, and I immediately pulled, lifting it off its feet and hurling right towards me. At the same time, my other hand burrowed into the lamppost pole, gripped the large cable inside, and yanked it out. The torn end gave off sparks as I pulled it forward and jammed it under Amazo's chin as it reached me.

Lightning arced between the two of us, and I felt pain as it seemed to go through me as much as Amazo. Unfortunately, even though it was on the receiving end of the wire, the android seemed less affected by the treatment than I was. With only a slight twitch in its movements it swatted the cable out of my arms before grabbing me. At that moment the electricity left me too disoriented to fight back, so Amazo spun me around and sent me flying through the air.

Again.

This time I didn't land back in the street but instead went clear through the wall of a building on the third floor, tumbling to a stop in the middle of a living room. I lay there for a moment as I tried to collect my thoughts, starting to feel… off. As the fight dragged on there was something building inside me, a sensation that felt old but familiar. I couldn't-

A whimper got my attention and my head snapped up. Near the door there was an Asian man and woman huddled together, looking at me in fear. Apartment building. I was in an apartment building. No, no, I couldn't fight here! "Run-"

That was as far as I got before Amazo jumped through the hole I made and landed on top of me. I didn't have time to think, so I just reached out with my left and planted on his abdomen, unfurling my hand into assimilation spikes. I couldn't eat its internals, but if I could strip away the outer plating that would make it much easier to hurt. Whatever the plating was made out of was dense and strong, but my nanites grinded their way through a few layers.

Then, out of nowhere, a scythe like blade deployed from its wrist and sliced my arm off at the elbow.

I screamed, both in surprise and in pain as the removed part of my arm immediately turned into a pile of metallic dust. Since when could it do that?! Fuck, did it get it from me?! As I recovered from the shock the android pick up a handful of the dust and looked at it, as if it was trying to find a diamond amid pebbles. Then it looked back at me and opened its jaw.

What happened next appeared to run in slow motion for me. My remaining arm lashed out and reached for Amazo's head, trying desperately to close my hand over its mouth. But it started its scream just as I was inches away, and I got to see my arm vibrate, fracture, and disintegrate piece by piece. Then everything speed back up and I was hurdling through the floor as it shattered from the force.

Everything became blurred and incoherent as my body vibrated from the sound, thoughts and sensations becoming difficult to parse. It only lasted for a few seconds, but if felt like a lifetime before everything snapped back into focus, and I found myself lying on the ground floor of building looking up through a series of holes. I tried to get to my feet and reform my arms, but it was more straining… no, more stressful than before. Like I was pulling deeper and deeper from a well. And it didn't help that it increased that sensation, that gnawing, biting, consuming-

Hunger. That's what it was. For the first time in a month, I felt hunger.

I shook my head as if to clear my thoughts, but froze went my gaze landed on the pile of rubble nearby. I couldn't tell what the room I was in was originally meant to be, but that didn't matter at the moment. Because pooling out of that pile was a slowly growing puddle of blood. And it was coming from a pair of bodies…

Hunger was pushed aside in favor of something else, something that burned hotter. But I was planning on satisfying both.

I was not facing in its direction, but my blindsight caught Amazo coming up behind me. As it got within arm's reach of me I spun, screaming in fury as my arm shaped into my electromagnetic piston. The weapon swung upward, catching Amazo from down low and striking with enough force to launch the android up through the holes it just made. I leap after it, hammering it upwards again just as it started to fall, this time smashing the thing clear through the roof. An inhuman sound escaped my throat as I hurried after it, pulling myself through the gap and onto the roof just as the thing was getting to its feet. It tried to jump off to get away, but I was already moving. I jumped after it and met the android in midair, my free hand grabbing and turning the fucking thing to face me just before I screamed and hit it a third time.

The piston fired as I made direct contact with Amazo's abdomen, shattering the already weakened plates into hundreds of pieces. The android rocketed to the ground and crashed into the middle of the street with enough force to crater the asphalt. I landed some distance away, stumbling but turning around in time to see the android pulling itself up. Its movements were jerkier than before, and all of the damage it had been accumulating since the fight began made it look like a complete wreck. The dark, exposed techno-mesh of its abdomen practically writhed as it tried to fix the damage.

I stood where I was, my nanites chittering in hunger for the android before me. "Come on!" I screamed in challenge as my piston re-cocked itself.

But, it didn't move. The damn thing just stood there and stared at me before it said "Stage 2 complete. Nanite ability extrapolated: technological assimilation. Error: crucial data still required for access." Amazo remarked in the same monotone it had been using all fight, seemingly not caring about the damage it had taken. "Knowledge of unit's capabilities compromised. Initiating Tactical Readjustment."

I didn't have long to parse that sentence before the android brought up its fists and slammed them into the ground. There was a massive plume of dust and debris as the already fractured street gave way, and the android disappeared from sight. For a few seconds I remained where I was, waiting for Amazo to pop back up somewhere else and ambush me. When that didn't happen I crept up to the edge of the hole and peered down, seeing that it was deeper than I had thought and reached down to-

I cursed and immediately jumped down the hole, shouting over coms "Amazo has fled into the subway tunnels! Pursuing!" I landed heavily on the tracks and scanned the darkness around me, looking for any sign of the android. For a few terrifying moments I thought I had lost it, but then I spotted a trail of tossed up gravel and broken wood trailing off to my left. It was as good a clue as I was going to get, so I shifted to xenomorph and sprinted down the tunnel.

"Machina, give us your position so we can find you!" Wonder Woman call out on the coms.

"Don't know where I'm going, track my signal!" I radioed back before I refocused on task at hand. I didn't know what the android was doing, but something told me that it wasn't just running away. I could tell with every hit it took and keep coming that the thing didn't have a sense of self-preservation; it would fight until it or its target were destroyed. So, what the hell was it doing?

I ran flat out for a full thirty seconds, turning left and right as I followed the trail before I spotted Amazo up ahead, just entering a subway station. However, so was a train from the opposite direction. And since we were on the express track, the train wasn't slowing down. Amazo just barely managed to clear the gap between the train and the tunnel opening, slipping past into the station. I wasn't so lucky, and found the blaring horn and bright lights of a subway train bearing down on me.

I let out a growl and ran to the side, barely slowing down as I ran up the wall and onto the ceiling of the tunnel just as train reached me. I felt the top of the train scrape against my back a few times, but I still pulled myself forward as fast as I could. After a few painful seconds I was clear of the train and entered the station, and what I saw caused a spike of fear to run through me. Amazo was pulling himself up onto the platform, and there was a small crowd of people backing away slowly from it. What the hell are people still doing here?!

Whether they didn't know about the attack or thought they could hide from it underground, it didn't matter. I let out a screeching roar and leap off the ceiling at the android. The sound finally scared the crowd into breaking into a run, but the gates and stairs leading outside couldn't let them all pass at once. Amazo rolled to the side and I smashed into the platform a second too late to catch it. My momentum carried me into a concrete pillar with enough force that the thing cracked and groaned dangerously, but I had no time for that.

I scrambled to put myself between Amazo and the civilians, and the fact that they seemed to be trying to get away from me as much as my enemy helped in this. I came to a stop between the android and the exit gate and started to shift back to humanoid. But then I saw her, a middle age dark skinned woman that had fallen when the crowd had panic and ran. And Amazo had grabbed her by the back of her head.

I froze, still in a sort of half crouch as I watched Amazo pull the woman to her feet by palming the back of her head. As she screamed in terror and clawed at its hand, I shouted "Let her go!" I didn't think for a second it would, but I hopped it would buy me time to think, figure a way out of this.

However, my panic quickly turned into confusion when Amazo suddenly reached into her purse and started rifling around. It then pulled out her smartphone… and tossed it at my feet. I blinked as I looked at it before I looked back up at the android. "What? I don't…"

"Stage 3 analysis: Informed Observation." Amazo said as he roughly brought the woman around in front of him, her struggling doing nothing. It placed the train tracks to its back as it continued. "Demonstrate assimilation of technology."

"…You can't be serious. You brought me down here and took a hostage so you could get me to give you a show?! Go fuck your-"

Amazo free hand went to the woman's neck and started to squeeze, her screams cutting off into desperate choking. Amazo's remaining eye stared soullessly at me as it flatly repeated "Demonstrate assimilation of technology."

I… I didn't know what to do, and the hunger biting at my insides was making it hard to think. There was no way I could move or form a weapon fast enough. I only had a few seconds before it snapped the woman's neck, but I couldn't let it get my assimilation powers. But I couldn't let her die! But I can't… I don't… What the fuck do I do?!

At that moment, I had never felt more powerless. I wasn't strong enough to beat it, or smart enough to think of a way out of this. I was going to fail, and the question was just how. I… think I could kill it in one shot if I just rushed it and went straight for its exposed midsection, but the woman would die. But if it gets my abilities, it would probably kill me and move on to kill more of the League and innocent people. So, I had to do it. The best option, the only option was to sacrifice her.

But… I couldn't watch her die.

I had to, for the sake of the many.

A hero wouldn't do that.

A real hero would have stopped it before it got this far.

Why do I have to do this?

There's nobody else.

I can't

You have to

YOU CAN'T ASK ME TO DO THAT

Before I knew it my hand buried itself in the smartphone, my assimilation spikes tearing it to pieces. Someone was screaming the entire time, but I don't know who it was, the hostage or myself.

The screaming stopped, and it was done. The woman's eyes had rolled up into her head, and she didn't appear to be conscious anymore. Amazo was still for a moment longer before he tossed the woman aside like a rag doll. She smashed into the pillar I had earlier, chunks of concrete breaking off as she collapsed into a heap.

"No!"

"Analysis complete. Access: Machina."

With those words, the android's body shifted, the plates along his separating slightly to reveal the black material underneath. I could see as it started to writhe before it became smoke-like, leaking away from the metal body like a shadow trying to break free of its owner. Amazo made a motion as if to flex, and the dark tendrils moved to its command. That was it. Amazo had copied my powers.

Including-

It wasn't a conscious thought, because before it even registered my body was already changing, my legs compressing and shaping, my skin rippling as I forced it to reconfigure faster than I ever had. Amazo had only that instant of warning before I launched myself at the thing, the platform cratering from the sheer force of it. In spite of my speed, it could have dodged or blocked me. It didn't though; I was doing exactly what it wanted.

I slammed into the android with enough force to send us into the air and flying off the train platform, but the moment I made contact it's black tendrils whipped forward and buried themselves into my body. Pain ripped through my body as I felt my own ability begin used against me, my body being consumed bit by bit. I screamed as my nanites tried to fight back, a war being waged on a microscopic level. It was only about two seconds before we landed.

Right onto the third rail.

Electricity surged through both of us, arcing everywhere as the current of a city block ripped across the metal that made us. Amazo spasmmed, his feeding stopped as his dark tendrils lost cohesion and sparked. "E-E-Error-or: Unable-Unable Er-Error: Functions-s-s Non-Non-Non-Operable." Too late it realized what happened. By copying me he had gotten all of my strengths, but also my weaknesses. Namely my vulnerability to electricity, and it hadn't just changed its entire surface into a Faraday cage and spiked its feet into the ground like I just had. An now all of its function were being disrupted. Including its internal energy field.

My arm speared into its exposed midriff and my assimilation spikes deployed. The pain stared anew as the nanites that made up my spikes were burned and destroyed by the current surging through Amazo, unable to both be protected and do what I needed them to do. But I didn't care. I screamed in fury as much as pain as I simply kept pushing, burning through my remaining mass as quickly as my nanties were being destroyed, because I needed to finish this, because all of those faces kept flashing through my mind, because I needed this thing to die die die die die die die DIE!

"R-Rerou-te Failure-Failure-Failure. Com-Compromise immin-in-inent." My spikes spread through the android's body, consuming the torso and pushing upwards. "Activating-ting fail-safe Omega-" There was a flash from inside its head before the thing exploded.

It was only a few seconds more before the remaining bits of the android were consumed, and I fell away from the electrified rail. My body shifted and writhed, trying to pull it itself back together as it parsed what I had just consumed. A few seconds longer and it was done. Everything was quiet in the subway as I sat just on the tracks.

Then I got up and moved, slowly at first, but picking up speed as I scrambled back up onto the platform and towards the pile of wreckage with the woman had been buried under. There were voices coming from the stairs leading up to the street, but all of my attention was on the rubble as I dug through it. "Come on, just let me have this…" Debris was hurled to the side as I worked. "Let me make it in time, please just let me make it in time…" I cast aside the last of the debris.

I didn't make it in time.